John Mellencamp will appear Friday at Whittenberger Auditorium

John Mellencamp will be coming to IU's campus at 4:30 p.m. Friday in the Wittenberger Auditorium. Mellencamp will be presenting "From the Ashes," a National Geographic documentary about the coal industry, which features a soundtrack with his music.
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Musician John Mellencamp will appear at a free event 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Whittenberger Auditorium in the Indiana Memorial Union.

Mellencamp will be presenting a documentary titled "From the Ashes." The 2017 film delves into communities across the United States as they struggle with the effects of the coal industry.

"The film goes beyond the rhetoric of the 'war on coal' to present compelling and often heartbreaking stories about what's at stake for our economy, health and climate," according to a summary of the film on IMDb.

Mellencamp recorded a version of singer-songwriter Merle Travis's 1946 song, "Dark as a Dungeon," for the documentary. The song describes the perilous conditions coal miners experience in their line of work.

The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and the National Geographic Channel.

"'From the Ashes' invites audiences to learn more about an industry on the edge through the lived experiences of those most closely affected, to begin to chart a path forward for and our energy policy and our country itself," according to the Tribeca Film Festival webpage.

The appearance is sponsored by the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and IU's Integrated Program in the Environment.

Clark Gudas

A previous version of this article listed Jeffrey White as the film's executive producer. The IDS regrets this error.

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